Green Bay — Cornerback Tramon Williams was as diplomatic as he could be on the day Green Bay Packers players cleared out their lockers, but he was clear in expressing a thought other veterans have offered in the past.

It's hard to play winning defense without experience on the roster.

Williams became the leader of the secondary through his outstanding performance during the second-half of the season and showed again Sunday in the 23-20 playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers that he has a lot left to offer. However, he is the only player in the secondary with more than four years experience and he said that makes things tough.

"You're challenged with young guys," Williams said to a couple of reporters at his locker. "Talented, young guys get played, but the game is still fast for them because they don't understand what teams are trying to do, they don't understand the scheme fully, they don't understand what the scheme can do for them, if they understand it.

"That's what you're faced with. Plus, the preparation. A lot of guys thought they knew how to prepare when they were in college, but then you get to the league and you find out there's another level to preparation. That's what you're faced with, with young guys. Even though we say it's a young league, yeah, it's a young league.

"It's an old league, too, because old guys make the league go."

Under general manager Ted Thompson the Packers have adopted a strict "draft-and-develop" style of player acquisition and that has meant few veteran free agents to bolster a defense running a fairly complex 3-4 system. When players like cornerback Casey Hayward, linebackers Mike Neal and Brad Jones and end Johnny Jolly went out with injuries at various times this season, their backups were generally first- or second-year players.

Some of those starters don't have much experience, so it only got worse when they exited.

The situation at outside linebacker was a prime example.

When Clay Matthews (thumb) was lost for the second time this season, the choice to replace him was 2012 first-round pick Nick Perry, which would have been OK except he was hobbled by a foot injury. Next in line was undrafted free agent Andy Mulumba and sixth-round pick Nate Palmer.

Thompson and McCarthy were so unsure about Palmer that they didn't make him part of the 46-man game-day roster against the 49ers. So when Neal and Mulumba suffered injuries Sunday, they were forced to use 2013 first-round pick Datone Jones at outside linebacker, where he hadn't played since college.

The Packers have suffered through many growing pains at safety since Nick Collins was forced to retire and it has cost them. They put all their chips on Morgan Burnett, M.D. Jennings and Jerron McMillian and none of them advanced to a level Sam Shields or even Micah Hyde did.

And Thompson never brought in a veteran to stabilize the position.

Williams said he would express his opinions about the need for more veterans, but he wasn't demanding anything be done.

He said his experience is that veterans help the team both on the field and in the locker room.

"That's the guys who have been there before, who know how to prepare, who mold the young guys," Williams said. "That's what they're there for. I understand I had the privilege of playing with (Charles) Woodson and Collins and Al Harris. I understand what chemistry in the secondary can do. That's what you try to find when you get a good group of guys. You want to get guys all on the same page.

"You want guys to see things the way you see it if you're the supposed leader of that group. When you can get guys to that point, slow the game down for everyone on that back end, then that's when you start seeing a lot of plays being made, whether it's your play or not, you know where the ball is going and you go and make the play. That's what we're trying to get.

"We have a great group of young guys in this room, but they're young. They can play very talented, but still they're young."

When asked if Shields, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent, is not re-signed would the Packers simply be starting over at cornerback, Williams didn't say yes. But he did say Shields is on the verge of being one of those veterans who knows the system well enough that he can take advantage of it and teach it to others.

He said as of now, he's alone in that department.

"I'm the older guy and everybody else is just young guys — and I'm not that old," the 30-year-old Williams said. "It's just one of those deals where we keep it young around here, but you don't want to just (under)value the veteran players because they actually mold the younger players.

"Like I said, I was with Woodson and those guys and they molded me. I know what it takes."

As for whether he can convince McCarthy and Thompson to consider more veterans, Williams smiled and said, "I'll try to see what I can get."